Customer Reviews

A funeral of gondolas

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"A Funeral of Gondolas" is an odd duck of a book. There is a reasonable murder mystery plot--two killings apparently tied to a gambling ring of Venetian gondoliers--and several sidebar crimes with interesting possibilities. There is also considerable potential in the story's protagonist, Commissario Achille Peroni--a Neapolitano with matinee idol looks and beloved by the papparazzi, who is assigned for political reasons to the relative crime backwater of Venice.

Soon on in the book, both the police procedurals and the commissario fall victim to author Timothy Holme's whimsical writing style and an undisciplined fascination with Italian Commedia dellArte and the 17th Century Venetian dramatist, Carlo Goldoni. Ultimately, Commissario Peroni demonstrates himself to have the strength of character of an average trattoria tiramisu.

Author Holme is also a great fan of metaphors and nearly every page of this book is full of them. "A Funeral..." has some funny moments. It evolves, in fact, into a kind of Commedia dellArte story. This isn't necessarily a good thing when you're reading a murder mystery, but some might like it more than I did.

The cover of this book suggests that readers of Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin might like this book. I would offer that the book will make readers hugely appreciative of Leon and Dibdin whose protagonists, Brunetti and Zen, were "born" sometime after "A Funeral of Gondolas" appeared in 1981.